Author's Notes: It took me, what? A year to update this? Oh my gosh. I have to admit, over the years, my writing skills have definitely gone dull. I'll try my best to keep this story alive, though I doubt if there's still anyone reading this. Haha.
Anyway, university has been busy on me. Hope you guys understand. =) And yeah, lack of idea for the chapter's name. Sorry bout that.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy IX. I do own Egil and Enigma.
Chapter Four: The Forest Slumbers
I hate this place.
"Zidane, watch out! There's one coming from your left!" I shout.
Somehow, we were ambushed by a pack of vicious Fangs. There were six of them. Zidane killed one and Steiner killed another. There are only four left.
And somehow, I ended up climbing up a tree. But that was for combat purposes.
Using the tree's height to the fullest, I can pinpoint the exact locations of our enemies using my sharp visions. My eyes are one of the results of my archery trainings, or more appropriately, my observing powers. Back when other archers were training, I was always watching from the side, keeping myself as low profile as possible. I carefully observed their every movements, how much force do they put in pulling the bowstring, how they aim for the bull's eye, how they hit and how they miss.
"Got it!" Zidane does a swift kick to his left just as the Fang pounces at him, sending pain down its wolf face.
Did I mention what a Fang looks like?
Fangs are wolf-like beasts having dark brown fur and mane, completing camouflaging themselves among the dark of the forest, not to mention having sharp fangs and claws. The largest one I've seen here is almost as tall as Vivi.
The Fang that got kicked in the face by Zidane barks in anger and wants revenge. But Zidane is faster. Before the Fang could do anything, he brought of his daggers down and cleaved the Fang's face, resulting in instant kill.
Three more to go, I observe. Steiner is doing fine tackling two Fangs by himself, so I don't have worry about him. Meanwhile, a Fang is crawling up on Vivi.
"Vivi, focus up a Fire magic!" I order.
The black mage nods and harnesses his mana.
"Wait for it… Turn around now!"
The moment I give the order, Vivi turns around and releases the focused Fire spell, which exploded in the pouncing Fang's face, killing it immediately.
"My turn," I mutter to myself, pulling an arrow out of my quiver.
I aim for one of the Fangs Steiner's fighting. The knight cleaves one of the Fangs, but giving the other a chance to get behind him.
"No, you don't."
My arrow flies smoothly through the air, carrying enough penetration power to skewer through the Fang's skull. That is the end of the Fangs.
Well, this is not the first group of monster we've fought in here. We've came across a band of Goblin thieves. Sneaky bastards tried to pulverize us. I don't really understand what they want. It's not like they get to spend the Gils in buying something. I guess they just love stealing people's loot.
Goblins are easy to fight, given that you're not hit by any of their Goblin Punches. Yes, the Goblin Punch, an ancient technique passed down in the Goblin family. Don't ever underestimate those punches. They hurt. A lot.
I've learned that the hard way.
That was when one of those Goblin bastards sneaked up behind me, and sent a Goblin Punch to my abdomen when I turned around. The punch was really slow, and it only touches my abdomen lightly. And so I laughed at how puny the punch was.
My laughter didn't last long before I was sent flying.
Apparently, the magical energy gathered up in its punch had a short delay in bursting out when it chose to release it. And since then, I've been on trees to stay away from monsters around here, not that I'm scared of them but hey, you can't be too careful.
After we made sure that there are no other Fangs left alive, we proceed in our search for Princess Garnet. We've been going on for what felt like hours, and there's still isn't any hint of where the Princess might be.
We travel in single file, Zidane at the front most, Vivi behind him, me behind Vivi and Steiner the last. The paths here have gotten narrower as we speak.
"We're getting nowhere," I voice out my opinions.
"Come on, I'm sure we'll find her pretty soon!" Zidane says.
"Then we must hasten our pace even further!" Steiner suggests, sounding even more determined.
"I know you're worried about Garnet, Steiner. But speeding up without a proper direction is pointless. That way, we're just wasting our energy. Besides, we have been walking for hours already," I try to talk him down.
Steiner hesitates. He looks as if he wants to counter me with something, but then thinks things over and shuts his mouth reluctantly. Even he is aware of the situation. We have been going for so long without stopping, and we can't be any faster because of exhaustion.
"Egil's right," Zidane supports. "Let's find some place and stop for a while. We all need a short break."
"But the princess—"
"Phew, my legs are really tired," Vivi has somehow interjected Steiner. Since the knight has great respect for his 'Master Vivi', he doesn't protest. Finally, he, too, agrees to stop for a while to rest up.
"I think I hear something," Zidane suddenly notifies. Steiner holds up his broadsword in alert instantly at that. Zidane gestures for him to stand down. "It's nothing alive. It's more like the sound of…water."
Water. That pops something in my mind.
"The plant monster's lair could be somewhere with plenty of water, since it's so important for them to grow with it," I point out. "We could be close."
"Princess!" Steiner gets all spirited at this.
Everyone just got revitalized suddenly hearing this.
"Then let's go!" Zidane urges.
Without wasting a second, we begin running towards the direction of the sound, hoping that we'll find Garnet soon enough. As we close in, I can hear the sound of water flowing growing louder and clearer. This could be the jackpot.
Much to our disappointment, what we found was only natural spring water. I was hoping for a river to follow. But since we found the spring already, Garnet's location should be nearby.
"Let's rest here for a while," Zidane suggests.
"Do not stop now, scoundrel! The princess's life is at stake!" Steiner defies. "I can sense that the princess is close by! We must—"
"Look, for the last time, we—are—tired," I protest, getting annoyed already. "We need to catch a break!"
"Are you saying that you will hold responsibility for the princess's safety, archer?" Steiner counters with a deadly glare and I return him one.
"Knock it off, you two," Zidane breaks our glaring contests by stepping in between us. "Come on, Rusty, it's just a few minutes break. Besides, Vivi's beat, too. You can't have him go into battle like that if you want to save the princess."
"Um, p-please?" Vivi asks politely.
Steiner looks as if he's going to blow up soon, but he swallows his desperation. The 'There-Is-No-Hope-Of-Rescuing-The-Princess-If-Mast er-Vivi-Is-Exhausted' idea seems to have convinced him to settle down. He goes off to patrol around the area. Seriously, I've never met someone more arrogant than him. If he'd just be a little more rational, then that'll be better.
Vivi sits down on a large rock and stretches his legs while Zidane looks around the spring. I take off my gloves and immerse my hands into the spring water. I wash my face and drink some of the water. The water's really refreshing, and it must have been magical since it replenishes my whole stamina ad libitum.
"The water's cool, Vivi. Come and try some," I gesture for the black mage to come over, and so he does.
"Wow!" Vivi exclaims in amazement. "I feel like my magic is fully restored again!"
"Really?" Zidane asks, walking over to try some himself. "You're right, Vivi! This is refreshing! Hey, Rusty! Come and drink some!"
Steiner narrows his eyes as if he doubts that Zidane has put poison in the spring water. But the crystal clear, refreshing looking spring has put that thought of his aside. He ends up drinking a whole lot of it.
Now that everyone looks alive again and less dead, we decide to get going. But something caught my eye before we leave. A hollow tree stump with an orange pompom wobbling out of it. Come to think of it, I've never met one of these things before, I mean as in real life.
"Is that a Moogle?" I ask, gesturing at the pompom.
"Hey, you're right!" Zidane walks over and touches the wobbling pompom.
There was a loud "Kupopo!" and the Moogle jumps out of the tree stump.
What's a Moogle? A moogle is something like a little teddy bear, only with narrow lines as eyes, cat ears and three vibrissae at each cheek. It has little paws and stands on its two feet; its body is covered in light pinkish fur. A pair of dark purplish bat-like wings grows on its back and a long antenna holding a pompom at the end sticks out of the Moogle's head.
"What's your problem, monkey boy!" the Moogle snaps angrily. Apparently, they don't like the idea of their pompoms getting ruffled up. Maybe it's a very sensitive part.
"H-Hello," Vivi greets cheerfully. I can see he likes Moogles.
"The name's Monty," the Moogle introduces himself. "What can I do for you?"
"Sorry," Zidane apologizes. "But did you happen to see a plant monster carrying a young, beautiful girl around here?"
"Kupo! A girl with black hair in orange jumpsuit?" Monty asks.
Steiner's eyes widen at this. "It is the princess! Where did the foul plant take her to?"
"Looks like we're on the right track," I assume.
"Are you going to save her, kupo?" Monty asks.
"That's right! We're going to save her and then get the hell out of this god forsaken forest!" Zidane declares.
"How brave, kupo! Let me show you the way!" Monty says. "It's the least I can do!"
"That's great!" Vivi exclaims.
"Then let's go!" Zidane gestures for us to move.
I can't be more relieved with Monty guiding us through the forest. This place is getting more and more complicated by the second. Evil Forest is a really aphotic place. You can barely have any sunlight in here. I don't even know if it's day or night right now since the brightness in here has always been the same.
We are no longer walking, but sprinting deeper into the woods. The air reeks of danger. And I don't like that one bit.
Then all of a sudden, Monty just pulls the brake and the rest of us stop as well. Floating in mid air in front of us are two large Dendrobiums. Think monster dendrobium orchids with killer teeth.
I can feel some dangerous breezes coming from around the Dendrobiums.
"Dendrobiums, kupo! Careful! They use wind magic!" Monty warns.
"Finally, a plant minion!" Steiner grins. He seems to be really happy at the sight of these Dendrobiums. "Master Vivi! Let us test what we have discussed!"
Vivi adjusts his hat in a cool way. "Alrighty."
Zidane unsheathes his daggers. He was about to charge when I hold him back by the shoulder.
"They've got this," I say. "Just watch."
Vivi waves his staff and directs it at Steiner's blade. I can feel magic gathering at the broadsword. I feel heat, and quite an amount of them in it. Steiner's broadsword now glows a vivid crimson. Then the blade bursts into flames.
We watch as Steiner charges head on. The Dendrobiums unleash their wind magic towards Steiner, but it only makes the flames grow larger. Its combustion takes in all the air in the Dendrobiums' wind magic and amplifies its power further. Steiner drives his fiery broadsword through one of those monster flowers easily, pulls out his blade and slashes at the other with a small spin. Within seconds, the two Dendrobiums are shrieking in fiery pain as their bodies burst into flames.
Just when we thought we have won, two more Dendrobiums appeared from behind us.
"You know what, Zidane? I hate this place," I say, readying my bow and an arrow.
"Count me in, Egil," Zidane replies as he brandishes his daggers.
"Blast! Time is of the essence! I must leave!"
"Steiner, wait—"
Before I could finish my sentence, Steiner has already broken into a run and vanishes into the darkness of the woods. He's going to get himself killed.
"S-Steiner!" Vivi cries out.
"Kupopo!" Monty adds.
"Let's get this over quickly and catch up with that moron," Zidane says.
Without further conversation, Zidane charges at the Dendrobiums that are now conjuring wind magic. I shoot an arrow at one of them. But things are harder for our normal, non-elemental attacks. One of the Dendrobiums releases a gust to blow away my arrow while the other sends sharp wind blades which Zidane narrowly misses.
My arrows do not work in this situation. Then I think of Steiner and Vivi's sword magic combination.
"Vivi, can you do the same on my arrows like what you did on Steiner just now?" I ask.
"A-Alrighty!" Vivi channels a Fire spell without wasting a second and concentrates it at the tip of my arrow as I nock it.
Zidane is already hacking away at one Dendrobium. I can see the other powering up another wind magic to save its friend. I release the arrow towards it before it completes its spell. Much like Steiner's Fire Sword, my arrow kills the Dendrobium in one shot by incinerating it alive. With no other interferences, Zidane, too, successfully kills the other Dendrobium.
"Kupo, we have to hurry after the big guy!" Monty urges.
"Yes, we do. Come on!" I give the command to run this time. We all chase after Steiner's direction with Monty leading us.
Soon, a tunnel came in sight.
"This is as far as I can take you, kupo! Good luck!" Monty stops before the tunnel waves us goodbye.
"Thanks a lot, Monty!"
We all flash him a quick wave as we rush into the cave. We haven't got time to stop now. The tunnel is a bit winding. We have to dodge several jagged rocks protruding out of the tunnel's sides. And I can feel my boots crushing who knows how many fungi as we rush on.
Our run comes to an end pretty soon when we enter a huge cavern with one of the ugliest, biggest and nastiest plant monster there ever is.
The Plant Brain.
It has a large flower for a head and several long vine-like tentacles with thorns. Its body is dry brown and is the size of a tank. Despite its size, the Plant Brain is rooted to the centre of the cavern. With it being sessile, it will be an easy target for my arrows.
"So, this is the master," Zidane pulls out his daggers.
"There she is!" Vivi exclaims.
Of course, Garnet is here. She's lying unconscious at one corner of the cavern. Meanwhile, our friend Steiner is being held upside down by one of the Plant Brain's tentacles. Apparently, he has dropped his broadsword on the ground, leaving himself defenseless.
"I command you to release me!" Steiner yells.
As if the Plant Brain understood, it throws Steiner at our direction, sending him rolling to our feet.
"You stay out of this!" Steiner says towards Zidane as he gets back on his feet. "Alexandria would be disgraced if a mere bandit should rescue the princess!"
"You think you can handle this on your own?" Zidane counters. That shuts Steiner up. "Let's get him, guys!"
We all break into a run as we separate. Steiner dives for his broadsword, missing the Plant Brain's tentacles by inches. Vivi is charging up a Fire spell. Zidane has already circled around to the monster's back. Soon, we've got the plant surrounded.
I quickly pull out an arrow and shoot it at the Brain. It doesn't shriek loudly in pain like the others, but its tentacles do twitch painfully, showing signs of it feeling the arrow's penetration. Zidane, at this rate, stabs the Brain at its back and does a backflip to evade its thorn-filled tentacles.
"Master Vivi! Your magic!" Steiner says as he approaches Vivi after retrieving his broadsword.
Vivi nods as he transfer the magic he has gathered into Steiner's broadsword. Its blade burns as Steiner runs for the Brain.
Unlike its minions, the Plant Brain is clearly much more intelligent. It sees the Fire Sword and conjures a Thunder spell as a counter measure. It gives its tentacles a short flick and a lightning bolt strikes down before Steiner, blasting him away. The Fire magic within the broadsword disappears afterwards. Looks like Fire Sword has its own time limits.
"Vivi, can your Fire spell reach that monster?" I ask as I run towards the black mage.
Vivi just shakes his head in return. And I think I know why. Low level black magic only has a short range of attack, unless mediated by other weapons such as Steiner's broadsword. And Vivi is too afraid of getting any closer to the Plant Brain. But luckily I'm here.
"Let my arrows help you, then," I say as I nock an arrow.
Vivi nods, understanding what must be done.
I feel heat being concentrated at the tip of my arrow as I release the bowstring. The fire arrow flies straight at the Plant Brain's body. At impact, it sets off a small explosion, causing the monster to shriek in pain.
I grin victoriously at the success of my attack, not noticing that one of the Plant Brain's tentacles snuck up on me from my blind spot. Before I knew it, the tip of the tentacle opens up, revealing an ugly looking hole. A few seconds later, my eyes were burning from the noxious gas the tentacle sprayed at me. I yell as the searing pain spread across my face.
It then took this chance to lash its tentacle at me, sending me flying to the side of the cavern. The air was knocked out of my lungs. The feeling grows horrible as I try to catch my breath. But the irritating pain in my eyes is just getting in the way too much. I can't see a thing.
"Egil, watch out!" I heard Zidane yelling.
It must be the Plant Brain's tentacles reaching out for me. I can just sense the impact coming. I'm going to die. I can't avoid it. Heck. I can't even see where it is coming from.
Somehow, the impact I expected didn't come. Instead, a loud shriek from the monster was heard. There was the sound of a metal blade slashing and cutting.
Help has arrived.
"Can't do anything without me, can't you guys?" I feel greatly relieved when Blank's cool voice reaches my ears.
"Blank!" Zidane cries out in joy.
"Glad I'm not too late. Keep it busy while I treat Egil here," Blank instructs.
"You hear that, Rusty?" Zidane yells.
"Silence! I do not need reminders from the like of you," Steiner growls in return. "Master Vivi! Let us attempt the sword magic once more!"
"Alrighty!" Vivi agrees.
I then feel something cool being dripped onto my eyes. Before long, the irritation leaves and my sight recover.
"You ought to keep some of these Eye Drops with you," Blank hands me a few of these eye drop containers. "You'll never know what type of monsters you're up against."
"Blank, you came," I mutter. "Thanks."
The red-haired bandit returns me a grin and grabs his sword. "Save that for later. Let's take care of ugly here first."
I nod in return. I quickly gulp down a Potion before nocking an arrow. Blank immediately heads towards the Plant Brain to assist Zidane and Steiner, who are busy fending off the plant's tentacles.
"Vivi, let's do this one more time!"
The little mage acts immediately by focusing his Fire spell at my arrow. But I didn't release the fire arrow instantly.
"Don't stop, Vivi, keep on focusing your magic on the arrow!" I say.
I feel heat continue to build up more and more at the arrowhead while I aim for the Plant Brain's flower-like head. The monster probably sensed danger approaching and shrieks in my direction. Its tentacles reached out for me, but were interrupted by Zidane, Blank and Steiner.
I continue to wait for the perfect chance to fire my arrow. The arrowhead's heat is now so concentrated that little sparks of flame begin to fly out from it.
The time is now.
I release the bowstring and the arrow flies towards the Plant Brain's head within the blink of an eye. At that one moment, all of the condensed Fire spells within the arrowhead burst out, incinerating the Plant Brain in whole. It shrieks its last as its massive body turns into charcoal and its dry petals combusted into ashes.
"Way to go, Vivi!" I give the little guy an encouraging push at his back. Vivi adjusts his oversized hat shyly in response.
"Princess! Please get a hold of yourself!" Steiner says in concern, cradling his princess in his arms. Garnet's face is very pale just like the other warded patients I saw in the hospital. She looks as if life is being sucked away from her.
"Zidane, give her the stuff," Blank reminds while sheathing his sword.
Without wasting a second, Zidane uncorks the seed-remover bottle and pours the medicine down Garnet's throat.
"Princess, please try to drink all of it," Steiner says.
We waited for a few minutes before life begin to return to the Princess's face again. Her condition seems to have stabilized. The effects of the seed-remover are superb.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Vivi asks anxiously.
"She's gonna be fine. Don't worry," I pat the black mage on the head. "She just needs some good res-"
Before I could finish, the ground begins to shake with a tremor. Our moment of peace and tranquility didn't last very long. I was horrified when I thought of what is coming next.
"Oh, man! What now?" Blank thinks out loud while trying hard not to fall from the tremor.
As if on cue, the ground beneath the Plant Brain's remains cracks open. The tremor stops, and out comes many praying mantis-like plant monsters. Weak while alone, but vicious in numbers, they are known as the Plant Spiders.
"Crap. We're gonna get surrounded!" Blank yells. He turns to us and points out an exit. "GO! What are you guys waiting for?"
It didn't take us long to get our legs moving. Steiner was the first to break into a run, carrying Garnet in his arms, followed by me and Vivi. Zidane and Blank follow right after.
The sound of the swarm of Plant Spiders chasing after us got my adrenaline pumping. Their numbers are innumerable. Heck, I don't even have time to turn back and look. No one does. All we want to do now is run for our lives. No, I do not want to be caught and sliced up into a gazillion bits by those claws and having my remains chewed by the lot of them Plant Spiders.
I feel as if my entire body is entangled by invisible wires. It hurts so much pushing your body to the brink of exhaustion. I feel like I can pass out any moment. But I have to hang in there. I must live, at least for now.
After what felt like hours of running, a glimmer of hope arises as I see light up front. We are almost out of the forest, though the swarm of Plant Spiders is catching up to us. Hang in there, guys.
However, Zidane begins to slow down his run, allowing the rest of us to run past him. I realize what he's trying to do. That idiot. He is planning to sacrifice himself for our escape.
"Zidane!" I cry out to him as a sign of warning. "Don't do it!"
Blank realizes Zidane's intentions as well and slows down to his side. Just as Zidane was about to be captured by one of the Plant Spiders' claws, Blank pushes him out of the way and gets himself caught instead.
"Blank! No!" Zidane yells, but he didn't stop running.
The Plant Spider that caught Blank stops in its spot while the others continue to crawl around it and towards us. The red haired bandit was doomed. And there is nothing we can do to save him.
Damn it. Damn it all.
In his last minutes, Blank reaches into his pouch and tosses a scroll towards Zidane. "GO! DON'T STOP RUNNING!"
The monkey-tailed bandit catches the scroll easily. I can see his face is full of anguish. The rest of us made it to the outskirts of the forest first.
"Come on, Zidane!" I urge.
A large tremor came from within the forest. Gigantic vines full of thorns begin growing out of nowhere as if the forest itself has gone havoc. They went completely berserk and lash at everything in sight, including the Plant Spiders. Trees are falling down. Rocks are breaking. But the most terrifying of all is the plague of petrification spreading from behind Zidane, eventually turning most of the Plant Spiders into stone. Blank, still in the Plant Spider's claws, becomes nothing more but a solid statue of rock.
Using his remaining energy, Zidane jumps towards us, barely escaping one of those mad vines. For a moment there, I thought the forest's vines were about to reach out for us. But apparently, they didn't. Instead, the forest begins to wrap itself with those large vines.
I gasp in horror.
The entire forest has turned into stone, along with our dear friend, Blank. There is no entry, and there is no exit for it.
Overthrown by fatigue and sorrow, I drop down to my knees. There isn't anything I can do. The rest of us continue to watch in silence as Zidane relentlessly pounds on the stony wall that separates him and Blank. His cries of anger echo in the skies. Zidane knows it better than all of us.
Blank is gone.
